“People get mad at me because I have too many opinions,” says modern day Dorothy Parker in the trailer for the documentary, pointing the camera at her frustrations with the way people navigate her beloved New York. Like when Fran sees a new Strand bookstore booth in the Times Square “tourist trap” and says to the vendor, “Isn’t it unfair to bring a book here? Unfair for books …”.
It is not the first time that Scorsese and Lebowitz have worked together: ten years ago, the author of “Two Pandas in New York” was the subject of “Public Speaking” for HBO, where she was seen pontificating sitting at her favorite table at the Waverly Inn , then Vanity Fair director Graydon Carter’s restaurant.
In 2013 the comedian appeared in two different roles as an extra on “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Now in her seventies, Fran offers Scorsese a “Baedeker” from her favorite city, covering “topics ranging from tourists to money, the subway, the real estate market and the not-so-simple art of traversing Times Square.”
Over the decades, since she published “Metropolitan Life” in 1978, Fran Lebowitz was for New York a political intellectual capable of cutting retorts like few others, although remaining on the fringes of the contemporary way of life: she has no computer, telephone, email address or Twitter account.
But down-to-earth humor continued to earn her fans: Scorsese films her on the street as girls dragging heavy tires as a form of exercise pass by. Perplexed, Fran comments: “People like to invent challenges. I believe that life is enough.”
The documentary is the latest in a serie which Scorsese dedicated to famous people like Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Elia Kazan and the Rolling Stones, and which precedes a “work in progress” on David Johansen, frontman of the hard-rock band New York Dolls.
In addition, last August it closed an agreement with AppleThe 78-year-old filmmaker, who already has “Killers of the Flower Moon” underway with the tech company, will produce and direct movies for Apple TV +.
“Suppose New York is a city” turns Lebowitz’s thoughts into a fun and frantic kind of guide that every New Yorker wishes they had at some point in their life. With a classic and urban tone, it deals with topics ranging from tourists, money or the subway to the deceptively simple art of walking through Times Square (because there is a right way to do it). Throughout the series, Lebowitz’s past takes shape before audiences, revealing a life characterized by endless curiosity and exhilarating independence.
Lebowitz’s lifelong friend, Martin Scorsese, directs “Let’s Suppose New York is a City,” punctuating it with his own views on this city that is known by heart. It is therefore a double dose of New York that will provoke delight, anger and personal identification among those who love the city as much as they do.
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